Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I google-diagnosed my laptop and am fairly confident that the motherboard died. It is a 2010 laptop with good specs which worked well for everything I needed to do. I can get a new motherboard for about $70 and there is a youtube video showing how to replace it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHLg63OZfGg

I am generally pretty handy and good at taking things apart BUT I sometimes screw up with things that have a lot of small parts (ie. watch repair) and struggle with getting them back together.

Would you give it a try considering the $70 investment or move on and buy a new one?

If I didn't need to go and buy a bunch of specialized tools, I'd do it. Even if I failed, a $70-lesson [just to know] isn't that expensive.

If I had to go out and buy a $300 resoldering station to work my $70 part or spend two days being frustrated, I'd punt and just buy a new one.

Background: I used to fiddle with hardware 25 years ago including buying single chips and replacing them on the mobo (that was before SMD). Since then I've punted (thanks Apple) until I accidentally bricked my intel NUC due to some BIOS bug that could only be fixed by pulling out the battery. I had to reset it by taking it apart (the battery was cleverly buried UNDER the harddrive and the RAM and things were packed really really close). However, it worked and because of that, I was quite happy making the attempt. Oh yeah, I have completely dissembled a watch movement and put it back together again so I might have fewer thumbs than you. In any case, definitely don't do this after drinking coffee!

+1

I would try it for sure. In the worst case, you learn something for a small price. The difficulty will depend significantly on the laptop brand and style.

Agreed, have a bash, what's the worst that can happen to an already knackered computer? They are cheap to replace.

I did something similar with a tablet a while back and screwed it up big time, it involved really tiny ribbon cables and soldering. Didn't work, but I had fun trying

I'd replace it, 6 years is a good run for a laptop. Other stuff is going to start failing. Something else failing might be what did the motherboard in.

If it's a GPU issue, you could try sticking the motherboard in the oven.. I did it for mine once, something like 325F @ 7 minutes, not sure about the temp. It basically reflows the solder, since the GPU is usually somewhat prone to getting a break in the connection (due the temp range it deals with).

It was a 2008 15" Macbook Pro that I did it for, worked great, fixed the laptop for another year.

You'd definitely want to research to see if anyone else did it with your particular board and what temp they went with.. you have to make sure to remove anything that might burn or melt (fans, or other big plastic pieces). And then you make tinfoil balls to keep the board in the air, and stick the balls on a pan and the board on top.

So basically you could save yourself $70.. Assuming it's a GPU issue (I think you'd normally get some lights of some sort but otherwise it doesn't bootup).

Provided you have an organized/clean workspace, yes, go ahead. It's a long procedure and you'll want something like an egg carton to hold/group the various bits. Helps for reassembly to have a small post-it pad to write quick description of parts and drop that in with the parts as you take them off.

George the original one wrote:Provided you have an organized/clean workspace, yes, go ahead. It's a long procedure and you'll want something like an egg carton to hold/group the various bits. Helps for reassembly to have a small post-it pad to write quick description of parts and drop that in with the parts as you take them off.

If the job required a disorganized dirty workspace with a hardwood floor to spew the various screws and a bunch of happyface stickers to gum up the works, then I'm your guy. What you're describing, that is anti-ego.

I think I am going to pull it apart and see if I can't find any obvious problems before paying the big bucks. Next week. My 8" travel tablet with the folding keyboard and the bluetooth mouse is satisfyingly minimalist for the time being. Funny how quickly we adapt. Fortunately I did backups.

I have tried to putz around with computers and other electronic devices. My batting average is less than 50% success (much less I believe, although I haven't kept formal records) . Also, I'm nowhere near qualified to do this. I end up poking around like a pig looking for acorns, trying to get lucky.

My last laptop purchase was in ways, a comedy of errors. I was motorcycle touring a lot then. So, I wanted small.So, I got a 10" asus only to learn that the small screen and the nonstandard keyboard was a Major problem (for me, at least) So, I then went after the biggest screened laptop I could find.(it's valuable to know what you want before you start buying!!)

It's a Toshiba L875D-S7332. Has a 17 in. diagonal screen. I bought it used for $250 or so. after checking for chronic problems with that model on the user forums. I updated to WIN 8.1 and have resisted moving to WIN 10. It has performed flawlessly for two years now.

Previous used IBM Thinkpads, seemed to last about two or three years.

By buying used, I avoid the high price of "latest and greatest". It's true there is risk of a patched up, ready to break computer, but when you save 75% over list, you can afford to lose one now and then.

I've done it before. Easy fix, you don't need any special tools. If you struggle to put it back together, take a picture after every step for reference. Take your time, no rush.

What's the eBay price of your model laptop with a broken screen? It might be worth it (easier) to move your screen to that laptop instead of doing a mobo replacement on your laptop.

I'd give it a try.

If possible I'd recommend backing up the hard drive before starting the motherboard replacement. There is a chance that you might break the drive by mistake.